Author: Parth Dhebar

Apple has posted a new television ad for the 13″ MacBook Pro with Retina Display. The ad highlights umber of different Apple apps including Mail, Final Cut Pro, Aperture, and iTunes. The new machine is aimed at “the pro in all of us.”

Introducing the new 13″ MacBook Pro.

With the stunning Retina display.

For the pro in all of us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfiJOP2uGk4&feature=player_embedded

Apple’s really good at making some great ads. This ad is just fantastic.

Today, AT&T announced financial results for the third quarter of 2012, revealing that the carrier continues to see strong iPhone sales. AT&T revealed that the carrier activated 4.7 million iPhones during the quarter, which is an increase of one million over the previous quarter.

The 4.7 million iPhone activations represent about 77% of AT&T’s total smartphone sales of 6.1 million during the quarter. In addition, AT&T’s smartphones sales rose to 81% and the iPhone represented 62% of AT&T’s sales of all phones (smartphones and feature phones).

Today, during the media event Apple unveiled the iPad mini. The device features a 7.9-inch display with a resolution of 1024×768 pixels. iPad mini measures just 7.2 millimeters thin and weighs 0.68 pounds.

The iPad mini features a dual-core A5 processor, a FaceTime HD camera on the front and a 5-megapixel camera on the rear, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity, and 4G LTE cellular connectivity in some models. Even though it is smaller in size, the iPad mini offers up to 10 hours of battery life.

Since the iPad mini’s screen has the same resolution as the iPad 2, all existing iPad apps that work on the older iPad 2 will work on the iPad mini without any need for developers to make modifications to their existing apps.

iPad mini starts at $329 for the 16 GB Wi-Fi model, with the 32 GB Wi-Fi model priced at $429 and the 64 GB Wi-Fi model coming in at $529. It will cost an additional $130 for models with cellular capability. All models are available in the same black/slate and white/silver color schemes seen on the iPhone 5.

Pre-orders for the iPad mini will start on Friday, October 26, with the Wi-Fi models shipping on November 2 and the cellular models starting to ship two weeks later.

Apple has also introduced new polyurethane iPad mini Smart Covers in six different colors, priced at $39 each.

Today, Apple announced an updated version to its full-sized iPad. The new update brings in an updated processor with a faster A6X and a new Lightning connector which was introduced with the iPhone 5 last month. The new processor offers up to two times the CPU and graphics performance of the A5X, while maintaining 10 hours of battery life and the same design as the prior iPad. In addition, the new iPad now supports many new international LTE carriers.

The fourth generation iPad is offered in black and white and starts at $499 for the 16 GB Wi-Fi models and $629 for the 16 GB cellular models.

Pre-orders for the new iPad begin on Friday, October 26 through the Apple Online Store in the US, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. The Wi-Fi configurations will begin shipping November 2, with the LTE configurations following two weeks later in the US, and then following in other countries.

Last week, Apple sent out invites for a media event scheduled for next Tuesday, October 23. This time, the event will held at the California Theatre in San Jose, CA. Apple has already decorated the theatre for the upcoming event. We have some pictures below:

The media event on October 23rd will begin at 10:00 AM Pacific / 1:00 PM Eastern. Apple is expected to reveal the iPad mini at this event. In addition, Apple is also said to be revealing a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro at the event. Rumors have also suggested that Apple will reveal new iMac and Mac Mini models.

Today, The Oregonian reports that Apple has begun working on the first phase of its Oregon data center project by clearing land that will be the site of one of the data center’s two massive 338,000 square-foot buildings, but that will building will only be partially fitted out for the time being. The data center’s first building will consist of two “data halls.” Future plans for the site include a second building and the eventual roll out of 14 additional data halls. The company is reportedly spending $68 million for land preparation and construction.

On Apple’s environmental page, the company says, “Our newest data center, located in Prineville, Oregon, is just getting under way and will be every bit as environmentally responsible as our Maiden data center. At Prineville we have access to enough local renewable energy sources to completely meet the needs of the facility.”

Back in February, it was confirmed that Apple had acquired the 160-acre plot in Prineville, Oregon for $5.6 million. Also, earlier this year, it was reported that Apple had agreed to invest $250M for the new data center site. The company also maintains a smaller data center in Newark, California and has been building out additional capacity in Santa Clara, California near its corporate headquarters in Cupertino. Apple also recently opened another data center in Maiden, North Carolina, where the company has indicated that it plans to spend $1 billion.

Yesterday, The Next Webreported that Apple was acquiring Color Labs, the video streaming service and app founded by Bill Nguyen, who was the creator of Lala Media. Lala Media was acquired by Apple in late 2008.

AllThingsD now provides clearer information regarding the situation. The report reveals that Apple is only acquiring Color’s 20-member engineering team for a relatively small sum. Apple is reportedly bringing Color’s engineers on board to work on cloud-related projects.

What’s really happening is that Color’s engineering team — about 20 people, comprising almost the entire company — is being “acqhired” by Apple at what’s being called a “nominal” price of something like $2 million to $5million, according to multiple sources familiar with both sides of the situation. To repeat, there are no “double-digit” millions involved, according to many people familiar with the deal.

Apple is not buying Color’s technology, intellectual property, domain names or liabilities. Those are being left with the company, which still has considerable cash in the bank — something like $25 million — and is going to be wound down.

Just yesterday it was revealed that Apple has acquired Particle, a small San Francisco company specializing in web applications and marketing using HTML5. Today, The Next Web reports that Apple is also in the process of acquiring Color Labs. Even before launching last year, Color raised a $41 million round of financing. The service first started off as a photo sharing service but later pivoted into a streaming video service.

Earlier today, VentureBeatreported that the company leaders had “voted to wind down the company”, but quickly after the news broke, Color issued a brief statement claiming that it was not in the process of shutting down. Color was founded by Bill Nguyen, who was the creator of Lala Media. Lala Media was acquired by Apple in late 2008.

This report may sound crazy at first since, but it makes a whole lot of sense. Color is similar to Siri. A novel idea that needs someone bigger to take it mainstream.

CNET reports that late last month, Apple finalized the purchase of Particle, a small San Francisco company specializing in web applications and marketing using HTML5.

The acquisition brought over most of Particle’s employees whose LinkedIn profiles now list their occupation as “creative technologists” and one as a “user interface engineer.” The acquisition seems to be more of a group hire rather than a move to secure IP.

Particle was founded in 2008 with the help of Justin Timberlake. How Apple plans to utilize this acquisition is not known, but the company has been emphasizing HTML5 a lot recently. Price of the acquisition has not been disclosed.

Earlier this year, Apple acquired app search company Chomp and it has shut down operations since the acquistion. Last year, Apple acquired Israeli flash memory maker Anboit which reportedly costed nearly $400M.

Back in March, we told you that we love the MOBiLe Cloth. MOBiLe Cloth is a cleaning cloth for touchscreen devices. The awesome team at MOBiLe Cloth reached out to us about a special giveaway. We are teaming up to give away a 24 pack of MOBiLe Cloth ($59.99 retail value)!

MOBiLE CLOTH, is made of a unique high tech split micro-material consisting of fibers 100 times thinner than a human hair! It is woven into a special pattern which we call “nubs”. Each nub acts like hundreds of tiny suction cups to pull fingerprints smudges, and germs away from the surface of your device and into the cloth with one or two swipes. No water or cleaning solution is needed.

MOBiLe Cloth is also running a special Grand Opening Special! Use the promo code “Techie” and receive 25% off and free shipping on order of $25 or more (free shipping only applies in the US and this does not include custom products). You can purchase MOBiLe Cloth here.

Want to win this giveaway? Simply leave a comment on this article. We will email the winner on 10/19/2012. Good luck!